Pale Fire

[davemarc]

I'm impressed by all the enthusiasm for Pale Fire, but I'd like to voice a
cautionary note, as I'm concerned that the focus of this list has already
been so diverted from Pynchon that an extended discussion of Nabokov could
be a big turnoff for people who came here or come here for all Pynchon, all
the time.. So here are some
suggestions that I hope will be considered. They're in no particular order.

1. Make it a Pale Fire-Pynchon discussion.

2. Create a new mailing list for the Pale Fire discussion (at a place such
as yahoogroups.com, which is free and easy to use) and report back to
pynchon-l with Pynchon-related discoveries.

3. If the discussion does take place here and here alone, consider it an
opportunity to try the essay/book report approach that has met with some
interest here. There's no law that says that every pynchon-l book discussion
has to be a dissection like the ones we've been having. With something short
like the 1984 Foreword and with something long and at least superficially
off-topic like Pale Fire, it might be good to experiment with reading the
work and then sharing an essay of a prescribed length (i.e. 500-1000 words)
that shows off your insights and erudition and gives your readers a chance
to savor your concise, elegant, and well-reasoned point-of-view.

Regardless of what the ultimate decision turns out to be, I hope that
whatever PF does occur turns out to be fruitful and flattering to all
participants.

And just out of curiosity:  Does anyone on this list have a problem with a
Nabokov discussion at this point?

d.